Bill Text

To prohibit the conducting of invasive research on great apes, and for
other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Great Ape Protection and Cost
Savings Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
(1) chimpanzees are the only great apes currently used in
invasive research in the United States;
(2)(A) as of the date of introduction of this Act, there
are approximately 1,000 chimpanzees housed in laboratories in
the United States;
(B) more than \1/2\ of these chimpanzees are owned by the
Federal Government; and
(C) the vast majority are financially supported by the
Federal Government;
(3) great apes are highly intelligent and social animals;
(4) research laboratory environments involving invasive
research cannot meet the complex physical, social, and
psychological needs of great apes;
(5) invasive research performed on great apes, and the
breeding, housing, maintenance, and transport of great apes for
these purposes, are economic in nature and substantially affect
interstate commerce;
(6) maintaining great apes in laboratories costs the
Federal Government more than caring for great apes in suitable
sanctuaries that are specifically designed to provide adequate
lifetime care for great apes; and
(7) the National Research Council report entitled
``Chimpanzees in Research--Strategies for their Ethical Care,
Management, and Use'' concluded that--
(A) there is a ``moral responsibility'' for the
long-term care of chimpanzees used for scientific
research;...

Sentiment Map

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State: CA

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District: 1st

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Popularity Trend

Organizations Supporting

The Humane Society of the United States endorses tThe Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R. 1513 / S. 810). This bill protects our closest living relatives and saves taxpayers money by phasing out the use of chimpanzees in invasive research, requiring the permanent retirement of the 500 government-owned chimpanzees currently held in research laboratories to suitable sanctuaries, and prohibits the breeding chimpanzees for research (NIH has a policy on paper prohibiting the breeding pf federally-owned or supported chimpanzees for research, but this policy should be codified and enforced).
Chimpanzees are very social, highly intelligent, and proficient in tool use, problem solving, and numerical skills and can even learn American Sign Language. Their intelligence and ability to experience emotions so similar to humans bolster the argument that chimpanzees intensely suffer under laboratory conditions. Despite extensive scientific knowledge of their rich social and emotional lives and their ineffectiveness as models for human diseases like HIV, chimpanzees continue to be subjected to painful and invasive experiments – some for over 50 years.
At any given time, the vast majority of chimpanzees aren’t being used in active research protocols and are simply warehoused in laboratories for decades, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars. Ending invasive research on chimpanzees and transferring all of the government-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries is the most cost effective and humane method of providing quality care for the these animals, and would save approximately 30 million taxpayer dollars each year.